


if the shoe fits (i can be your cinderella)

by takajima



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Yuto is Whipped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-09 07:43:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19884070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takajima/pseuds/takajima
Summary: This is how it begins.A pair of shoes, a very queasy Yamada, and a sticky situation."Perhaps our greatest risk any of us will ever take is to be seen as we really are."—Cinderella





	if the shoe fits (i can be your cinderella)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primmfaktor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primmfaktor/gifts).



> For [primmfaktor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primmfaktor/pseuds/primmfaktor). Sorry if this isn't really what you wanted ;-;; You gave me so much to work with and i got a little overwhelmed, but I still hope you'll enjoy this!
> 
> (also a big THANK YOU to those of you who helped me get through this, you're the best!!!!!)

“Okada-san is about to retire soon.”

Yuto doesn’t need to look up from his phone to know that they’re at a stoplight. He can hear Yuya doing the tapping thing he does when he’s being impatient again.

“There’s another place that is quite near your school. Do you want to try it out?”

“What’s wrong with the current dojo?”

“You’ve played against the others. You know.” Yuto hates how Yuya’s right. “It’s not that hard for you to win against the other coaches. They aren’t taking other students either, so--”

“Can you drop me off here? I want to walk in.” Yuto is ashamed that he cuts him off midspeech, but he really doesn’t want to have this conversation.

“You’re seriously not going to let me drive you all the way in?”

Yuto shrugs.

“Promise me you’ll think about it?” Yuya is nothing if not persistent. Yuto hates it (not really). “You’re really talented, okay?”

Yuto sighs. “I will.”

“Good. Now get out of my car.”

Yuto is pretty sure he knows the way into his school, but just to be safe, he follows a guy with the same school uniform.

The guy staggers a little, nearly tripping over his own feet and almost falling backwards, but luckily Yuto is right behind him, quite literally.

“Are you okay?”

It is when the guy turns to him that Yuto realises that it’s Yamada from his class. Yuto definitely does not remember Yamada being this pale. Or green.

Yamada nods, but the vigorous movement proves to be too much for him as he promptly barfs all over Yuto’s shoes.

Fuck Yuto’s life.

So much for being a nice person.

“Can you stand? We’re close to our school. I’ll take you to the infirmary.”

Yuto makes sure to dump his shoes on the way in.

Yamada doesn’t return during lunch.

“Hey, are you feeling any better?”

When Yuto goes to check on Yamada after school, Yamada is still visibly pale, but he definitely looks less green than he did this morning when he threw up all over Yuto’s shoes.

“Yeah, thanks for helping me out,” Yamada says, “and I’m so sorry about your shoes.” He looks sort of guilty now. “I could wash them for you if you want?”

It really isn’t that big of a deal, Yuto thinks, and that’s what he tells Yamada, hoping it will reassure him.

Yamada’s eyes grow comically wide. “Then how will you get home?”

“Uhh…I can just wear my indoor ones back home, it’s fine!”

Yuto knows he can get a clean pair from home brought to him, but he doesn’t say it.

“Then you’ll have to wash those too!” Yamada seems very concerned at this point. It’s cute, but Yuto thinks that it’s unnecessary. “They won’t dry in time for tomorrow!” Yamada reaches for his own shoes and thrusts them in front of Yuto. Yuto’s just glad the shoes don’t hit him in his face. “You can take mine? It’s the least I could do for ruining yours.”

“It’s really not a problem. I don’t think we’re the same size anyway.” At this point, Yuto’s just hoping that Yamada will drop it.

Yamada visibly deflates. And then pats his own back.

“Okay, hop on.”

“Wait, what?” Yuto is so very confused.

“You won’t take my shoes, so I’ll just have to piggyback you home!”

Yuto fails to see the logic in this situation. “You just threw up this morning,” he tries and fails to reason.

“So?” Yamada clearly isn't buying it. “Don’t make me princess carry you,” he threatens.

Yuto doesn't feel very threatened, but he hops on anyway just to please Yamada.

He is sure they make a very strange picture, with how tiny Yamada is and how awkwardly Yuto’s limbs hang, but Yamada isn’t showing any signs of fatigue. Yamada also smells like strawberries.

“Is that guy from our school?”

They’re at some park on the way to the station, when Yuto sees a bunch of seedy looking people crowding around some poor guy.

“Yeah,” At this Yamada stops moving completely. Yuto feels more than sees them move in the opposite direction of the commotion, and finds himself being gently lowered down on a bench.

“Do you want their shoes?”

Yuto blinks. “What?”

“This will take just a minute.”

Yuto has no idea how Yamada is going to handle the situation and why he went off on his own. Besides, the latter looks too happy to be heading for danger. Yamada looks like he’s almost skipping. If Yamada intends to scare off those guys and help that student, wouldn’t it be better to have Yuto go with him?

Yuto’s barefoot, not invalid.

He pinches himself and it hurts, so Yuto knows he isn’t dreaming.

He watches as Yamada arranges the shoes pair by pair, lining them up before him.

“So, which pair do you want?”

Yuto looks down and frowns. It’s not the shoes that bother him; as far as he’s concerned, this is still theft. He’s going to be an accomplice.

“You don’t like any of them?” Yamada pouts, seeming to take it the wrong way. He picks up a particularly distressed pair of sneakers, “I didn’t like these either. They look a little dirty. I just brought them over so you can look at the whole set.”

If Yuto’s memory serves him well, the pair of shoes in Yamada’s hands might be worth more than a thousand dollars. He tells Yamada just that.

Yamada promptly screams. And leaves Yuto in favour of returning the shoes. Yamada even tucks the shoes under some guy’s arms. Yuto isn’t even sure if that’s the owner of the shoes.

“Does it hurt?”

Yuto isn’t very sure how they got here, with Yamada cradling his foot like it’s something precious. He hopes his feet don’t smell.

Yamada had wanted Yuto to try out the shoes, and very quickly noticed the calluses on Yuto’s feet.

Okada-sensei says it comes with practice; the long periods they spend sitting in a seiza position, and that’s their kind of street cred.

_”You can see a player’s experience just by looking at their feet.”_

Most of the time he isn’t bothered too much by his calluses. He doesn’t actively hide them, but he isn’t particularly proud of them either. They look a bit ugly, his feet.

“Not anymore, but it used to.” It’s been too long since he’s had them. “When I was nine, I got distracted really easily and then my parents had me try karuta.” It’s a bittersweet memory, one filled with tears of a rebellious nine-year-old, who quickly became addicted to the satisfaction of being _good_. “I haven’t stopped since.”

Yamada beams, and Yuto momentarily forgets that the other boy is _still_ holding his foot. “I think it’s really cool that you have something you’re good at. And you like it, right?”

Yuto nods, but stops. “You’re good, too!” He hopes he sounds reassuring, because he saw how Yamada had moved just a few moments ago, and he did not seem like an inexperienced fighter. “The way you took down those guys?”

Yamada shrugs. “It isn’t that big of a deal.”

“You’re really cool!”

At that, Yamada smiles a little brighter, and Yuto gets the overwhelming urge to want to protect him. Not that Yamada is someone who needs any protecting, but still.

Two laps of awkward shuffling to “get used to the shoe” later, Yamada finally gives him the clear to walk around on his own and goes off to his part-time job.

Yuto just sits there for a bit, staring at the shoes on his feet. They’re a little muddy, and they definitely feel slightly warm. Yuto tries not to think about the latter too much.

“Hey, so I’m in a park.”

“There are many parks in Tokyo.”

“It’s the one with,” Yuto looks around, trying to find something special about the place. “Trees,” he finally says.

There is a good few seconds of silence on the other end.

A sigh. “Just drop me a pin. I’ll come get you.”

“Nice shoes.”

Yuya shouldn’t be one to talk, because he wears jeans and flip flops.

Yuto keeps the shoes.

The next morning, there’s a suspicious looking bag of cookies on his desk. The cookies look normal, thankfully, but what bothers Yuto is the fact that there’s a ribbon with hearts tied around it.

It has to be a prank.

“What, you don’t like it?” Yamada demands expectantly, and it is only then Yuto realises that the cookies are from him. “I made these, not my sister. Totally safe to consume.”

Yuto’s seen what happened when Yamada ate his sister’s cookies. He doesn’t really believe him.

“I’m a really good cook!” Yamada insists, but it only makes Yuto more sceptical.

“If I get sick from this I’m aiming for your shoes.”

Yuto says a quick silent prayer, and takes a miniscule bite. The cookie tastes good, but Yuto fake gags anyway.

“No way!” The cookie in Yuto’s hand gets yanked to Yamada’s lips. “It tastes fine!”

The action puzzles Yuto, but Yamada is already raising a hand, and Yuto belatedly realises he shouldn’t be teasing somebody who beat up four other guys single-handedly. Not in this lifetime.

Yuto makes a noise he isn’t very proud of, but manages to dodge the hit successfully.

His butt isn’t as lucky; he lands on his ass.

Yamada’s a hard worker, and it isn’t rubbing off on Yuto. Yuto still struggles to stay awake for half his classes, and it does make him feel guilty, especially when he’s aware that there are many out there like Yamada.

Yuto doesn’t like that it makes him feel useless. School has never been a priority because no one expects him to do well in that, but he hasn’t actually been to practice either.

It’s been a week since Okada-sensei retired, and maybe it’s time for him to work harder.

“Hey, I thought about what you said.”

Yuya hums. “And?”

“I’ll go to the new place. If that’s okay with you.”

“Great. We’re already on our way there.”

The new place is smaller, much smaller than any practice venues Yuto has ever been to before. It can hardly be considered a dojo, more like a practice room.

His new coach is Morimoto, who is apparently also the same kid they saved a few days ago.

Wait, what?

“I don’t usually see you around in school.” Yuto may not be the most social of butterflies, but their school is a very small institution, with only three classes per level.

Morimoto just smiles.

“Do we even go to the same school?”

“Sometimes.” Morimoto doesn’t look very phased by the question either.

“Who are you?”

“Just some kid,” Morimoto says. It’s unsettling to a certain degree. “Who is better than you.”

That is an insult Yuto simply cannot ignore.

Throughout practice, Yuto’s fingers repeatedly come into contact with skin and the wooden flooring. He can count on one hand the number of times he’s actually touched the cards. Morimoto is so good it’s beginning to frustrate Yuto.

He only manages one measly point against him. And that was only in one of their multiple practice games.

Yuto soon realises that Yamada often brings cookies to school in the morning.

Today’s the kind of day that Yamada just sits in front of Yuto and doesn’t share. Yuto thinks Yamada’s being particularly mean.

“Please?”

Yamada doesn’t budge, not even after Yuto whines to him all about Morimoto.

He does, however, invite Yuto for ramen at the place he works at.

Yamada says he’ll give him the employee discount, so Yuto counts that as a win.

In turn, Yuto invites Yamada to come watch his practice.

“It might not be very interesting,” Yuto warns. Chihayafuru really raised people’s expectations with this game. Cards don’t fly in the air and make twirls as they land. They do, however, skid to the side if you’re fast.

Yamada still comes down anyway.

Yuto never invites people to watch him practice—Yuya doesn’t count. He comes when he wants to, even if Yuto doesn’t want him there. He thinks it might be a good feeling, knowing someone’s watching him play and rooting for him. He just wishes it wasn’t on a day he was beaten (again) by such an annoying kid.

“You’re right, your opponent’s great.” Yamada says, as they’re walking to the train station.

Yuto knows he’s pouting, but he can’t help it. “What about me?” He had thought his performance today was a great improvement from the last two practices.

“Eh,” Yamada says vaguely, but it’s teasing. Yuto can tell—all he needs is one look at that dumb face.

He still hopes that Yamada will want to come watch him play again.

When he does, Yuto somehow has better odds against that Morimoto kid.

Lately, in addition to karuta, his days have been filled with ramen, shoujo manga and ice cream.

Yuto knows Yuya thinks it’s weird, the way he spends so much time with Yamada.

“It’s unlike you,” Yuya had said, but then got all teary when Yuto tells him about his experience using public transport.

He still sends Yuto home from the station, so it really doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Yuto is the type to fall fast, hard, and stupid. The first two he’s very aware of, the last one, not so much. His mother says it runs in the family; his dad _is an idiot_. But he’s _her_ idiot. His mother’s words, not his.

He likes to think he isn’t that clueless. Yuto’s sure that the reason why Yamada doesn’t ask for his order anymore is because he always orders the same thing.

Definitely not because Yamada has his order memorised.

He’s sure Yamada always puts two containers of beansprouts in front of him because of a joke that they have. Not because he knows Yuto likes it, and that Yuto always finishes exactly one and a half portions with his ramen.

It’s strange, that he cares so much about what Yamada thinks.

Yuto catches himself midthought.

He pauses, soup spoon still in midair.

Which is how he finds himself staring into the ramen soup for a good few minutes, only to be broken out of his reverie by Yamada’s hard thwack to the head. The soup sloshes out of the spoon, but thankfully lands mostly in the ramen bowl. Mostly.

Yuto’s going to have to wash this pair of jeans.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

The back of his head hurts a little, which means Yuto isn’t dreaming.

When he looks at Yamada, it’s like flowers are blooming all around him now. In a ramen store. That’s insane.

 _He’s_ insane.

Yuya is never going to let him live this down.

Yuto should really go inside.

So maybe he’s pacing a little, and he’s a bit nervous.

Yuto sighs again, and walks past the ramen store for the fifth time. What if it’s weird and awkward and Yamada doesn’t want to talk to him again?

This time, Yuto promises himself, he’s going to go inside.

He’s making his way round the corner to the store again when he sees a familiar figure outside waving at him.

Yuto squints. “Yama-chan!” If he jogs a little to meet Yamada faster, it’s because it’s cold outside. It’s definitely not because he’s excited. “Are you on break?”

“No,” Yamada pauses, squinting. “Wait. Why do you have your hood on? You’d better come in. My boss told me there was a suspicious looking guy outside and told me to take care of him.”

“...sorry.”

“You didn’t call this time,” Yamada says, and it’s not a question.

Yuto can actually feel himself turning pink. It’s awfully embarrassing.

“Is everything okay?”

The familiar smell of ramen does little to calm Yuto down, his heart beating so fast it only serves to scare him.

So he says it.

Some days, Yuto thinks that his life sucks. That’s mostly when he loses to Morimoto, which is a common occurrence.

There are other days, when Yamada walks to the station with him and they get to hold hands in Yuto’s coat pocket until the station.

Those are the best days.


End file.
